EXCEED THE SPACE PROVIDED. This is a competing renewal grant proposal for the General ClinicalResearch Center (GCRC) at Northwestern University and Northwestern Memorial Hospital. The GCRC has been continuouslyfunded since 1961 and is a six bed discrete unit. Lewis L. Landsberg, MD, Dean of Northwestern University Medical School, is the new Principal Investigator. William L. Lowe, Jr., MD is the newly appointed Program Director. Gerhard P. Baumann, MD continues as Associate Program Director responsible for the Core Laboratory, while Ram Yogev, MD and Boyd Metzger, MD continue as Associate Program Directors, responsible for Pediatrics and Training respectively. Over the past few years, research activities at Northwestern University Medical School have increased substantiallyboth in the clinical and the basic sciences. Successful recruitments of research-oriented Chairs of Pediatrics, Neurology, Neurological Surgery, Surgery, Molecular Pharmacology, and Physical Therapy contribute to an environment that fosters the current and future increased utilization of the GCRC. This renewal application contains 52 protocols from 37 different principal investigators representing 7 Departments (Medicine, Pediatrics, Surgery, Neurological Surgery, Obstetrics/Gynecology, Neurology, and Preventive Medicine), and 9 divisions within the Department of Medicine. The renewal also includes a continuation of the satellite inpatient and outpatient CRC facilities at Children's Memorial Hospital. The breadth of science is demonstrated by the protocols to be presented at the Site Visit. These include studies of the genetics and phenotype of gestational diabetes mellitus, use of hematopoietic stem cell transplantation for the treatment of autoimmune diseases, association of blood factor levels and genetic variations of genes encoding blood factors with peripheral arterial disease outcome, new innovations in P-cell transplantation for the treatment of type 1 diabetes mellitus, racial differences in the metabolism of sodium and potassium, role of neuromuscular and mechanical factors in knee osteoarthritis progression, the mechanismsof underlying age-related changes in sleep and circadian rhythmsand the effectiveness of behavioral interventions to improve sleep anddaytime neuropsychological